Tag Archives: Jack McDevitt

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The Long Sunset

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I’ve been captivated by this series and the character Priscilla Hutchins from the very first book, and my fascination has only grown. Watching Hutch evolve as an individual, a mother, and a pilot has been a delight. The best part is knowing that whenever there’s an incident in the depths of space, Hutch’s extensive experience makes her the likely candidate to be called upon.

During a class, Dr. Derek Blanchard receives a transmission featuring a waterfall and a musical score through the telescope they’re observing. His initial instinct is to investigate whether it originated from an extraterrestrial civilization. It’s been 7000 years, and the majority of Earth’s population is reluctant to engage with potentially hostile, advanced aliens.
Nevertheless, Dr. Blanchard is eager to seek out these beings to verify if the signal indeed came from an alien planet, rather than a terrestrial interference. To this end, Derek recruits Priscilla to navigate a ship seven hundred light-years away in search of answers. However, they encounter far more than they anticipated.

The story doesn’t revolve around action, which is perfectly acceptable as it allows for a deeper understanding of the characters through their interactions. The science is sound, and the aliens, while imaginative, bear a resemblance to terrestrial fauna. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates science fiction that focuses more on exploration than combat.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

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Coming Home

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I do love the Alex Benedict stories because there is always excitement. I will say that this was a bit more subdued than usual though. The characters were still interesting and full of life. The science was good and made me want to see just how much was actually real, if any. The locations from Earth to the asteroid belt is described wonderfully. It is just an overall fun and suspenseful ride.

The Capella, an interstellar which has been lost for eleven years is about to surface again. On that ship is Alex’s Uncle Gabriel and 2600 other passengers who may not know what has happened to them. Everyone is hoping they can rescue them and keep the ship from going back into the time/space warp it has been trapped in. While Alex deals with this a friend comes to him with a communications devise from the dawn of space travel. People have been looking for lost artifacts from the moon as well as NASA that went missing 8000 years ago. Then this pops up and Alex promises to help track down whether any others are still in existence. As usual he is being targeted for his search, which could be placing him and Chase in a deadly situation.

I love science fiction, particularly good science above everything. These stories take you so far into the future that it is always good just to see that humanity could still exist, because some days I have my doubts. I would definitely recommend this as well as all the books in this series. Jack McDevitt is a great story teller who can take you to the edge and back.

My rating: ✯✯✯✯

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Odyssey

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odyssey

Odyssey (The Academy #5)

This grabbed me and made me lose sleep over the past few days because I did not want to put it down. Jack McDevitt is a master of creating a world with people you cannot help but admire and situations that are tense and filled with anticipation.

I love this series along with all it’s permutations because each is a little different but essentially the same. In space you cannot know what to expect and this brings the idea home in a solid manner. The science is sometimes accurate and sometimes theorizing but always interesting. I had wanted to be an astronaut and when I read these books I can at least feel like I made it out there.

Read these books for the sheer joy of flying off into the black and being entertained.

 

 

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

 

“Truth, beaten down, may well rise again. But there’s a reason it gets beaten down. Usually we don’t like it very much.”
― Jack McDevitt, Odyssey

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Starhawk

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starhawk

Starhawk (The Academy #7)

While I have loved riding with the Academy for years now, this was not my favorite adventure to date. This is a prequel which is about Priscilla ‘Hutch’ Hutchins and her first adventure after getting her pilots license and a job. It also is about the development of the Academy as an institution and the Wheel as the space port it needed to become in the future. These were the events that made her who she would later become, but it was not an easy read. The writing is fantastic as always and the characters are well developed and feel like friends more than just words on a page. The galaxy is vivid and I can see the relics left behind in my minds eye with no problem. It just did not have the same feel to it that I am used to having.

Priscilla’s training flight is not as uneventful as most usually are and she and Jake find themselves in the middle of a rescue. The rescue has to occur because of a radical who has placed a bomb on another ship which has blown up. There is a movement that feels the death of every life form on a planet in order to terraform is not acceptable and this is their way of protesting.

The theme throughout is about these individuals who are willing to do anything, including kill in order to save life on a far away planet while sacrificing human life. Priscilla makes a few flights but nothing very note worthy happens. I;m glad I read it because it is part of the story, but I just cannot totally recommend it except to those who have read the previous books.

 

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 

When finally they got through, the first thing Priscilla saw was Josh, floating a foot or two above the deck, his wrist tied to a frame. They tried to revive him, although Priscilla thought it was probably a cruel thing to do. If they succeeded, he would only feel that he had to go through it again.